Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Too early for scorebooks

DUNEDIN, Fla. — The most fitting summation of Monday’s intrasquad game at The Mattick came from the mouth of manager John Gibbons:

"I don’t know what the score was. Was there a score? Did we score?"

The Ceruttis held a 1-0 lead over the Matticks when I finally left the field to try to catch up with Shannon Stewart on his first day in camp. Rumor has it that Sal Fasano later homered for the Matticks, but I know of no one who saw it happened. I’ll say he called his shot — sounds cooler.

After the game, when asked if there was any possible way to break camp with Stewart and Reed Johnson, Gibbons didn’t dimiss the possibility of carrying 11 pitchers. That’s highly unlikely, though. And speaking of Stewart, here are the incentives included in his contract:

50K for 400 plate appearances, 50K for 450 PA, 75K for 475 PA, 75K for 500 PA, 50 K for being an All-Star, 50K for winning a Silver Slugger, 50 K for the World Series or LCS MVP and 100K for MVP. If he’s not on the team by March 30 and asked to be relaeased, the Jays have to meet his request.

I’m going to go out on a limp and say there’s a few in there that Steart doesn’t net. But you can start up your Shannon-Stewart-for-MVP campaigns if you like. If he does indeed make Toronto’s roster, Stew’s salary will jump to $1.5 million. So, hypothetically, if Johnson is cut and the Jays need to pay roughly 1/6 of the $3.275 million he’s owed in ’08, the team winds up with a cheaper left fielder.

One item of note this morning is that the Jays posted their pitchers for the first three Grapefruit League contests:

Feb. 28 at Lakeland: Jesse Litsch (two innings), followed by Gustavo Chacin, David Purcey, Lance Carter, Shawn Camp, Josh Banks, Jamie Vermilyea, Mike Gosling and Jean Machi (though not all of them can make one-inning appearances. Sides that day will be thrown by A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan and Randy Wells.

In other news, Lyle Overbay is back in camp, but after missing two days with flu-like symptoms, he’s not in the lineup. Robinzon Diaz and Pedro Lopez also finally arrived after visa issues delayed their trips from the Dominican. Hector Luna’s still not in camp.

With that, I’m going to head out and try to commit some journalism.

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6 Comments

According to the toronto sun, the Rays are pursuing Barry Bonds. I thought the guy was done, and I personally don’t want to see him or his steroids play again. But it will be extremely interesting to see what happens.

Barry is my favorite player of all time… He was before he got big and he will be after he gets small. The man was and still is awesome!!! I just don’t want to see him smashing dingers off of the Jays, and if he signs with Tampa he will get plenty of opportunities.

Jordan, You’re killing it down there so far. Thanks for all the updates. This might just be greedy of me but maybe you, wilner and maybe Jeff Blair should have a contest to see who can outblog the others this spring haha. In other news Radiohead will be coming to town August 15th. Looks like the Jays are out of town that day which *****.

Much as I like Shannon, when you look at the schedule in April, it will be pretty hard to do without 12 pitchers. I’m pulling for Reed to knock ’em dead this year, just because nobody else thinks he can do it.
Have a good one

I agree with gnorman, we need 12 pitchers to make the club. I also think Stewart is going to be the odd man out anyway. We have Stairs who hits for power, and Reed who is great at defence and average. Unless Stewart really impresses this spring, I don’t think he or his very week arm will make the team.

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